The unseen power of water

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

You can lead an idiot to water but it is exceedingly difficult sometimes to make them safe.

This play on words of a long-standing axiom regarding horses and hydration came to mind recently after learning a group of what appeared to be 20-something “rafters,” or “tubers” — depending on the media source — had to be rescued from the Spokane River June 3.

Had this been a story that happened in July or August when river levels are more benign, maybe it would not be worth noting.

But the river was rolling along at a pretty feisty 16,000 cubic feet per second. The best...